


If I had twenty-two more hours

by TheRaspberryPancake



Category: 2.43 清陰高校男子バレー部 | 2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Career Ending Injuries, Light Angst, M/M, Mimura Subaru is a himbo, Minor Injuries, Ochi Mitsuomi is a gay disaster, Serious Injuries, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-24 03:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30065628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRaspberryPancake/pseuds/TheRaspberryPancake
Summary: Mitsuomi Ochi doesn't have the best luck when it comes to not being injured... He's also terrible at repressing his extremely gay crush on his teammate, Subaru Mimura.Subaru Mimura is no good at words. Many would describe him as socially inept, even if that is a little harsh and entirely untrue, he's simply bad at picking up on social cues. One thing remains true though, he's cares deeply about the people close to him. He especially cares for Mitsuomi Ochi, although he wasn't entirely sure why at first. Throughout the time they spent together in high school, one thing was made abundantly clear; if he had twenty-two more hours to spend with Ochi, he'd take them in a heartbeat.
Relationships: Mimura Subaru/Ochi Mitsuomi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

From the outsider’s perspective, Mitsuomi Ochi was a complete loner. It was rare to spot him hanging around with anyone else, spending every available moment by himself. He sat alone at the back of class. He spent break and lunch alone at his desk, either on his phone or eating his bento. The only time anyone in his class would hear him speak was when he raised his hand to answer a question – getting the answer right every time without fail. He was clever, extremely clever, and frequently ranked at the top of his class. That’s all that Ochi was – a clever, nerdy loner.

Except he wasn’t, not really. Sure, he was quiet within a classroom situation but that’s only because he had nothing to say. He was in school to get his grades up enough to get into university, not to mess around. He had plenty of time to mess around outside of class, such as in clubs. He really came to life during club time. Once he was out of the classroom and down in the gym with the volleyball club, that was when his quiet nerd act faded away.

The true Mitsuomi Ochi came out on the volleyball court and, by god, was it a sight to see. At least, Mimura Subaru thought so. Mimura wouldn’t say that he was obsessed with Ochi but watching him switch from loner to sports-obsessed dork was rather endearing and he found himself doing it a lot. When they weren’t running over drills, he’d sneak glances at the other, laughing with his teammates or cleaning up the sweat on the court or other mundane tasks like that. He’d found that Mitsuomi was often put in charge of tasks like that. While he was good at volleyball, he wasn’t anything spectacular, unlike most of the other guys on the Fukuho team, and his short stature didn’t help him much. While the coach had never straight up _said_ it to him, he knew that he felt as if they didn’t need Ochi – like Ochi would never do anything for their team. Everyone knew that the coach thought that way. Mitsuomi himself probably knew but no one dared bring it up to him, just in case. No one wanted to risk upsetting him. He might quit the club and go back into that lonesome shell of his permanently. Wait no, Ochi would never quit the volleyball team. He loves the sport too much for that. Ochi was on the team to stay… at least, they used to think he was.

It had happened one afternoon. It was a normal Tuesday for Ochi, starting his day with his classes and then heading down to the gym for volleyball practice. The coach had actually put him on the court for a practice match between the first years, just to see their improvement over the past few months. Due to the fact that he spent most of his practice time running errands, Ochi hadn’t improved all that much, but he managed to hang on during the match, albeit by a thread. Many people had suggested to the shorter male that he should try switching to the libero position, but he was perfectly content with playing outside hitter. That is, he was. In a split second, his volleyball career was over. He’d landed funny after going in for a spike and… _snap_. He was on the floor, screaming in pain and clutching his lower leg. His ankle was straight up broken, and his right leg wasn’t doing much better. The coach stopped the game immediately and an ambulance was called. No one was allowed to go with Ochi to the hospital, not until practice ended, but the overall mood of the team had darkened after the incident.

Subaru went straight to the hospital after practice. He wasn’t sure if Ochi would still be there or not, but it wouldn’t hurt to check. If he weren’t there, he’d just drop him a text to see how he’s feeling. The injury looked pretty bad, and he was worried for his teammate. He got to the hospital and went up to the front desk. “Hey.” He looked down at the lady behind the desk. Being six feet tall and living in Japan, he ended up looking down at people quite a lot but that was ok, it’s not something he minded. “I’m here to visit my teammate. His name is Ochi Mitsuomi. Is he allowed to have visitors right now? If not, I can come back another day.”

She smiled at him, just a little to be polite. “I’ll check for you.” She looked back at the computer and pinged a message over to someone on the ward, asking about if Ochi was available for visitors or not. She received a message back a few minutes later and looked back at Mimura. “You can see him. His room number is 253.”

He nodded. “Thank you miss.” He started making his way to the room where Ochi was. Once he got there, he knocked on the door. He heard the other’s voice telling him to come in and he opened the door, going inside. “Ochi, hey…”

The shorter male looked at Subaru, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Mimura, hi.” He hadn’t expected anybody to come and visit him, much less Mimura. The other had always come across as someone who didn’t have time to care for someone like Ochi. It wasn’t that he thought Mimura was too up-himself to pay any mind to him, he simply thought that he’d never even noticed that Ochi existed. I mean, why would he? There was nothing special about him. He was just another painfully average first year. He was nothing like Subaru, who had been specially scouted by Fukuho due to his volleyball skills. Ochi was a passable volleyball player, but he wasn’t anything special, especially not now that he was in the hospital. Even if his leg healed properly, he’d be out of practice and would need to work hard to get back to where he was and he wasn’t sure if he’d have time for that. School, studying and club time already took up the majority of his day. He’d probably be cut from the team; that was basically certain. But he didn’t want to think about that now. He wanted to be happy and actually talk to Mimura for once, and that was exactly what he was going to do. “I wasn’t expecting you to visit.”

He chuckled a little, running his fingers through his bangs. “That’s surprisingly backhanded of you, Ochi.”

Mitsuomi raised his eyebrows. “Surprisingly?” Yeah, Mimura definitely didn’t pay that much attention to him. He dished out backhanded comments to people like it was an Olympic sport. Mind you, you’d have to have a conversation with him to know that and he hadn’t had many, if any, conversations with Subaru. Maybe it was unfair to label him as not paying attention to him over this… Oh well, if he wanted to pay attention to him, he’d talk to him more. “Maybe I should try being meaner to you. Maybe then it wouldn’t be a surprise.” He was being playful with this comment, obviously, and finished it off with a little giggle. However, Subaru looked confused. He sighed. “That was a joke, Mimura.”

“Oh, ok.” Mimura laughed nervously. “That makes sense…” Although he was fast on the court, he was extremely slow in social situations. He was also slow in school situations. He wouldn’t call himself stupid but… yeah, he was a little bit stupid. I think himbo is the word for it – strong and caring yet dumb as a rock.

Mitsuomi sighed. “Did you seriously think I’d deliberately be mean to you for no good reason? Do you think _that_ low of me?” He knew that Subaru didn’t know him all that well, but he’d never imagined that that was his reputation among people he hardly spoke to. That kind of stung…

Subaru’s eyes widened. “No no! That’s not what I meant at all!” Fuck, did he offend him? Or upset him? He hadn’t meant to do that. God, if only he was better at reading social situations! “I just didn’t pick up on that… Sorry.” Ochi shrugged, acting like it didn’t bother him, but it clearly did. He wasn’t the best actor. He sighed. He probably couldn’t fix this right now; it would be better if he simply tried to change the subject. “…how’s your leg feeling?”

He shrugged once again. “It’s fine…” It wasn’t fine. It really hurt, especially his ankle, where the bone had literally snapped. He hadn’t had the operation yet – the doctors had just… I don’t know, done something to his ankle and leg to stop the pain. He wasn’t sure what he was as he was under anaesthetic at the time. “I’m sorry for making coach cut practice short… I should’ve been more careful…”

“Eh, it’s fine. Everyone has accidents.” Subaru slid into the chair beside Ochi’s bed, leaning on the arm of it and resting his chin on the palm of his left hand. He watched as the other raised his eyebrows yet again. “Seriously! I’ve hurt myself doing stupid things dozens of times, and what you were doing wasn’t even stupid, so you’re already doing better than me.” He laughed a little, trying his best to lighten the mood. Ochi laughed to and he smiled. “Yeah yeah, laugh about how stupid your future captain is.”

Ochi scoffed. “Future captain? Must be nice to be that confident in yourself.” Although, in all seriousness, he one hundred percent believed that Mimura could become the captain someday. He was caring and, from what Mitsuomi could tell, he always knew how to lift the spirits of, if not the whole team, at least the other first years. He was also an extremely talented volleyball player. Wasn’t that, like, a right of passing for a team captain? Being a good player? Mitsuomi considered it to be, even if no one else did.

“Yeah? Well, sometimes you have you have a bit of confidence.” He smiled. “I think that’s your problem, Ochi. You don’t believe in yourself.”

“Oh yeah?” He folded his arms. “Well, it’s a bit hard to do that when there’s absolutely nothing about yourself to believe in, not that you’d understand that…” He trailed off at the end, his mind wandering back to Mimura and how, well, perfect he seemed. He’d only known him since the start of high school but, man, he’d never even seen him have an off day.

“You seriously believe that?” Hearing that had disheartened Subaru quite a bit, seeing as he was the one who recommended to Fukuho’s coach that they scout Mitsuomi (it wasn’t his fault that the coach didn’t take him up on it). He’d never encountered Ochi’s team back in middle school tournaments, but he had watched a few of their games if they were playing while his team wasn’t. He was good. Not _super_ good, but definitely out of the league of most middle school players. He was sure that Ochi would do well at high school and, although it was by chance, he was super happy that he had chosen to attend Fukuho. However, Ochi hadn’t come from a strong middle school and hadn’t exactly got the same game experience that the other Fukuho first years had. This meant that he fell behind his new teammates, much to his dismay. Subaru had always believed that Ochi would catch up to them with time but now, with the injury and the unknown time it would take to heal, he wasn’t so sure. “Ochi, you’re an amazing player.” That’s all he could manage. He wanted to say so much more, but he couldn’t get it out of his mouth.

Ochi sighed. “No offence Mimura, but you’re a liar.” He didn’t like calling people liars but there was no way that Mimura was telling the truth. Sure, he was… decent in middle school, but he was way behind his teammates in high school. He wasn’t ‘amazing’, like Mimura was trying to tell him he was, he was painfully average. Hell, he was below average! If it wasn’t for his love of volleyball, he probably would’ve quit by now. However, he did love it and, even if he was useless to his team, he was here to stay.

He chuckled a little, taking that comment lightly, and got up. “Well, you can believe that if you want. I don’t think there’s much point trying to convince you.” He flashed him one last smile. “Visiting hours are almost over though, so I should leave.”

“Eh? Already?” Mitsuomi pouted, just a little. Was it really that late already? He didn’t feel like he’d been at the hospital that long. Mind you, he didn’t know how long he’d been under anaesthetic for, so it might’ve been a lot longer than he was assuming.

Subaru laughed a little again, running his fingers through his fringe. “Yeah, already…” He looked at the pout on the other’s face and bit his lip. “It’s not like I want to leave. Trust me Ochi, if I had twenty-two more hours to stay here, I’d take it. I feel like you need the company.” The other stammered about something and he chuckled to himself. “Want me to come back tomorrow, by any chance?”

A light blush dusted over Ochi’s cheeks, caused by the mere idea of the other taking time out of his day to visit him again, but it was too light for Mimura to notice. Ochi didn’t understand why he was blushing. He knew he was gay, having figured it out in his second year in middle school, but he didn’t like _Mimura_ , of all people, not that like anyway… at least, he didn’t think he did. Not yet. “I’d like that.” He smiled back at the other.

Subaru nodded. “Ok, cool. I’ll see you tomorrow after school then.” And with that, he left, leaving Mitsuomi alone in the room to calm down his blush and… well, lie in bed and be bored.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a couple of weeks since Mitsuomi got discharged from the hospital. He’d been doing alright. He was on crutches and, therefore, couldn’t go back to volleyball practice yet. That was ok though, because once his leg healed, he’d be right back on that court!... or that bench, seeing as he was nowhere near good enough to make the starting line-up. Not yet anyway. He used to be certain that he’d never be good enough to make the line-up, especially since he’d be even further behind the other first years once his injury healed, but, with the help of Mimura, he’d managed to develop a smidge of confidence in his abilities. According to Mimura, he’d be on par with the rest of the team with a couple of months of _serious_ hard work. Apparently it would take longer for most people to get back on track, but Mimura kept saying that Ochi was different, that he was a talented volleyball player, whether he wanted to believe it or not.

Ochi was on his way down to the faculty room right now, actually. He’d been called there to speak to the volleyball team’s coach about something. He hadn’t been told what it was about, but he was fairly sure it wouldn’t be anything bad. The coach probably just wanted to ask him how his recovery was going. He’d been out of commission for almost a month now; it was only natural for his coach to start asking when he could expect him back at practice.

He knocked on the faculty room door, waiting for a response. Technically he _could_ just walk, or hobble, into the room, but that would be rude, and he was supposed to be respectful towards his teachers and, for that matter, everybody older than him. Something about respecting your elders because they have more experience or know better… or something like that; Mitsuomi wasn’t entirely sure why but who was he to question it? It didn’t cost anything to show someone a bit of respect, especially if it was someone like his coach, who he was actually rather fond of. He was a nice enough man and had always shown kindness to Ochi, even if it would make more sense for him to play favourites with the other players seeing as they could do more for him but whatever, he wasn’t complaining.

“Come in.” He heard the coach calling him into the room. He pushed the door open with his elbow, still leaning on his crutches obviously, and hobbled into the room. The man looked at him, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Ah, Ochi. Glad you could make it.” Ochi nodded and the coach signalled for him to sit down in the chair opposite the desk. “How are you feeling today?”

“Good, thank you sir.” Ochi slid into the seat, resting his crutches against the desk but making sure they were close enough for him to grab again when he needed to get up. “Why did you call me here?” He rested his hands in his lap, gently tugging at his fingers as he tried to stay calm. It was rare for _anyone_ to get called to the faculty room and, nine times out of ten, those who did had done something to get in trouble. Mitsuomi didn’t think that he’d done anything to get him in trouble. Mind you, he did have a habit of being blunt on the odd occasions that he spoke to his classmates. He might’ve accidentally offended someone…

The man noticed the worried look, plastered on Ochi’s face like wallpaper, and decided that it was his duty, as a faculty member, to calm the boy down. “There’s no need to be worried. It’s nothing bad, I just need to have a talk with you about something.” He watched as the boy nodded – the distressed look beginning to fade. “It’s about your injury and… well, your place on the team.”

Mitsuomi immediately tensed up again. This was it; he was about to get kicked off the team, either because of his injury or because of his general lack of ability. No wait, he didn’t lack ability! Mimura said he was talented, and Mimura knew what he was talking about when it came to volleyball so this must be because of his injury, right? But he shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe he just wants to talk about reinstating him as a member of the team, seeing as he’s been out of commission for a little while and is _definitely_ in need of some practice to get him up to speed. He took a breath. “What about it, sir?”

The older male wasn’t entirely sure how to break the news to Ochi. Something about the boy made him feel absolutely terrible for what he was about to say. He didn’t _want_ to hurt him, but he had to get this out of his system before it consumed him. He felt bad for having to cut Ochi loose but giving him the attention he would need to get him back on par with the rest of the team once he recovered just wasn’t worth it. If it were someone like Mimura, an essential member of the roster, he would put in all the effort he needed to sort him out, but Ochi wasn’t Mimura. Don’t get him wrong, there was absolutely a place for Ochi on the team. It’s just that that place wasn’t on the court. “Now, I don’t want you to take any offence to this. You are an exceptionally talented player but, with your injury, we’re not sure how long it would take to get you back up to speed and, if I’m being truthful, I don’t have that much time to spend on getting you ready to play again. I’d love to keep you on the court Ochi, I really would, but I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on you. With that being said, I believe that there is a place for you on this team.” He looked straight at the boy. “Would you consider being our manager?”

Mitsuomi felt as if his coach had taken a knife, slammed it directly into his heart and twisted it over, and over, and over again. He was in emotional agony. He felt like sobbing, curling up into a ball and sobbing right there on the spot, but he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t show that he was hurt. This wasn’t about him; this was about the good of the team and… well, for the good of the team, it was best that he stepped down. He’d love to play volleyball with Mimura and the others, he really would, but he couldn’t be selfish. He didn’t want to quit though… He really didn’t want to quit, and it was tearing him up that he was being pushed to do so. He forced a smile. “Thank you for allowing me to stay a part of this team but…” He took a breath. “…I’m going to have to think it over.”

The coach sighed, quietly to himself so Ochi wouldn’t hear it and feel worse, and nodded. “I understand. Take your time thinking about it and come and talk to me once you’ve decided, ok?” Even though the other was trying not to show it, he knew that Ochi was upset due to what he’d just told him. If it hadn’t upset him, he’d have agreed to being the manager on the spot. But did he blame Ochi for how he was feeling? Of course not, he was a sixteen-year-old boy, it was natural for his emotions to be all over the place. He wasn’t mature enough to simply accept things and that was ok. He’d give him time to think it over if that’s what he needed.

Ochi nodded, his smile starting to quiver but he tried his best to stay calm for now. “Thank you sir.” And with that, he was dismissed from the faculty room. He grabbed his crutches and hobbled out of the room, letting the door swing shut behind him. Once he was out in the hall, the calm act crumbled away. His smile faded. A few lone tears spilled down his face, but he quickly sniffled and screwed his eyes shut, refusing to cry anymore. Right now wasn’t the time for this. He was stood in the school corridor, for god’s sake! Anyone could walk past and see him, and he didn’t want people to see him cry, not at school! He made his way to the wall and rested one of his crutches on it, leaning on the other while he wiped his eyes. This was nothing to cry over. He was being childish. He sighed and picked up his other crutch, making his way back to his classroom.

He got back to his class and sat down in his seat. The teacher made some joke about the coach ripping into him and he laughed along but inside he was torn up. What was he going to say to Subaru? The other was dead set on him being able to re-join the team some day and now… now that’d all been ripped away from him. Mimura would be so disappointed in him, and he didn’t want him to be disappointed! How the hell was he supposed to tell him?... Wait, who even said that he had to tell him? He could just not talk to him about the whole manager proposal thing. Yeah, that sounded good. That way he couldn’t disappoint Subaru. Besides, what’s wrong with keeping a few secrets?


End file.
